The prehensile-tailed hutia (''Mysateles prehensilis'') is a small, furry, rat-like mammal found only in forests on Cuba. It is the only member of the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

''Mysateles''. It climbs and lives in trees where it eats only leaves, and it is threatened by

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

. The prehensile-tailed hutia is a member of the

hutia Hutias (known in Spanish as jutía) are moderately large cavy-like rodents of the subfamily Capromyinae that inhabit the Caribbean islands. Most species are restricted to Cuba, but species are known from all of the Greater Antilles, as well as ...

subfamily (Capromyinae), a group of rodents native to the Caribbean that are mostly endangered or extinct.

Taxonomy

The genus name ''Mysateles'' derives from the two

ancient greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

words (), meaning "mouse, rat", and (), meaning "incomplete, imperfect". Within Capromyidae, the closest relative of ''Mysateles'' is the genus ''Mesocapromys''. Both genera are the sister group to ''Capromys'', and then ''Geocapromys'' is a more distant genus. In turn, these four genera belong to the tribe Capromyini, and are the sister group to ''Plagiodontia''. Several other hutia species such as Garrido's hutia (''Capromys garridoi'') and the black-tailed hutia (''Mesocapromys melanurus'') were formerly classified in ''Mysateles'', but phylogenetic evidence found them to belong in different genera, leaving only ''M. prehensilis'' in ''Mysateles''. There are three subspecies: the nominate ''M. prehensilis prehensilis'', the Isla De La Juventud tree hutia (''M. p. meridionalis'') and ''M. p. gundlachi'' (also known as Chapman's prehensile-tailed hutia or Gundlach's hutia), which is named in honor of Cuban naturalist

Juan Gundlach Juan Cristóbal Gundlach (July 17, 1810 - March 14, 1896) was a German-Cuban naturalist and taxonomist. Biography Gundlach graduated from Marburg University, where his father was professor of physics, as Doctor of Philosophy in 1837. In 1839, h ...

. The latter was previously considered a separate species (''Mysateles gundlachi''). ''M. p. meridionalis'' was also previously considered a separate species, but was found to be a subspecies by phylogenetic studies.

Genetics

Its

karyotype A karyotype is the general appearance of the complete set of chromosomes in the cells of a species or in an individual organism, mainly including their sizes, numbers, and shapes. Karyotyping is the process by which a karyotype is discerned by de ...

has 2n = 34 and FN = 54–56.

Habitat and conservation

The species is found in both primary and secondary forest. It is listed as

near threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been Conservation status, categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as that may be vulnerable to Endangered species, endangerment in the ne ...

on the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological ...

. Although locally common in some areas, it is in decline and is threatened by

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal and destruction of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. Ab ...

and

habitat fragmentation Habitat fragmentation describes the emergence of discontinuities (fragmentation) in an organism's preferred environment (habitat), causing population fragmentation and ecosystem decay. Causes of habitat fragmentation include geological proces ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4862701 Mysateles Endemic fauna of Cuba Mammals of Cuba Mammals of the Caribbean Near threatened animals Mammals described in 1824 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxa named by Eduard Friedrich Poeppig